Vikas Swarup’s phone has been ringing off the hook since the movie version of Q&A, his bestselling novel about a Mumbai ghetto boy winning a TV quiz show, bagged four Golden Globes.
Emerging as the Hollywood crowd’s hot ticket in the countdown to Oscar night, Slumdog Millionaire is no longer the underdog in the race. Thanks to the celluloid commotion, Swarup — by day the mild-mannered Indian deputy high commissioner to South Africa — has taken leave from the embassy in Pretoria to promote Slumdog worldwide.
How are you coping with the demands of promoting your book-turned-movie and your day job?
Since the Golden Globes my schedule has become almost unmanageable. Work is the more important component of my life, so I have taken leave for this [traveling to promote the movie]. I was lucky: if the foreign minister of India had been visiting South Africa, you could bet your bottom dollar that I would be in South Africa now.
What does a deputy high commissioner do?
Anything the high commissioner doesn’t want to do. I am in charge of bilateral relations between India and South Africa and I supervise cultural and trade relations.
Slumdog Millionaire has struck a big chord —
It is absolutely fabulous. This is a very low-budget film, shot in India, with entirely Indian actors. Who would’ve imagined that a slumdog from India would challenge the dark knights [the other Oscar favourite, The Dark Knight, featuring the late Heath Ledger] of Hollywood?
You’ve been in South Africa for two-and-a-half years. Is income inequality as stark here as it is in the India you describe in Q&A?
India is a nation of a billion people, so the divide is more visible there. But, of course, here you have wide disparities between income and wealth.
In India we have slums; here you have townships. But hope is a very important ingredient for human existence. This film says basically that a flower can bloom, even in the ugliest slum in the world.
Have you always wanted to write a book?
Not really. I joined diplomatic service 22 years ago and read a lot of fiction. In London I noticed that several diplomats in the foreign service were trying their hand at writing. That was sort of my motivation — do I have a novel in me? I was quite happy in my day job — if it had not worked out I would’ve probably given up the dream and remained Vikas the diplomat.
Are you handling the fame?
I’m ambivalent about it. It is nice when people say the book gave them pleasure, but it can be intrusive. Since the Golden Globes my phone has not stopped ringing and everyone wants to get a piece of me. I feel as if this experience is not entirely positive, because the questions are all the same, isn’t it? Bureaucrats like me, our jobs are to be behind the scenes — if you want to be famous you have to be a politician.
Is there an upside to celebrity?
New doors open up for you that wouldn’t have otherwise. The late Helen Suzman called me up. “Vikas, I read your book and I would like you to come to my house,” she said. Unfortunately, I never made it. I spoke to her on the phone — she was already pretty fragile. One of the enduring regrets of my life is that I couldn’t see her.
You leave in July for your next posting. What will be your enduring memory of South Africa?
South Africa is full of people with warmth and generosity of heart. The kind of reception that my book has received here shows me that, despite things such as the xenophobic violence, South Africans are receptive to outside influences.